by Heidi Hall, The (Nashville) Tennessean

by Heidi Hall, The (Nashville) Tennessean

A fast-growing, worldwide congregation of atheists picked an unlikely spot to try to launch a new group.

It's Nashville. Where the Southern Baptist Convention is headquartered. Where Christian authors go to avail themselves of a vast publishing network. Where the faithful drive past several churches in their denomination on Sunday to attend just the right one.

But the founders of The Sunday Assembly, British comedians Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans, were looking forward to visiting the fledgling group personally Thursday evening. In fact, Jones said, he'd even like to learn something about church planting from Nashville's experts and buy a few books on the subject.

"What happened is, we had about three or four people signed up, in fact, in Nashville, and we got a miscommunication and thought there were a lot more people signed up than there were," Jones said. "We thought we'd go for it anyway. Taking cues from the Southern Baptist Convention, we thought we'd have faith and give it a go."

Despite the confusion, Jones and Evans are taking an approach to the startup than can only be described as, well, Zen.

"We don't know how many people will be there," Jones said, "but however many there are, that will be the perfect number."

That philosophy has worked well for Evans and Jones, who launched the first Sunday Assembly - frequently shorthanded to "atheist church" - in London in January. Within weeks, they were drawing capacity crowds, and the duo expects to have 35 groups meeting around the world by year's end. In the U.S., Sunday Assembly groups meet in New York, Boston and Washington.

On Oct. 20, Jones and Evans launched an Indiegogo.com campaign aimed at raising 500,000 British pounds, or about $805,000, to reach even more people. It was up to about $42,500 Wednesday morning.

All are welcome at Sunday Assembly meetings, Jones said, but people looking for theological arguments will be disappointed. Sunday Assembly doesn't try to talk people out of their religious notions, just to capture the best social parts of church without God or any religious doctrine. Members celebrate life with poetry, lectures and songs such as Journey's Don't Stop Believin'.

Richard Land, former president of the Nashville-based Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said he supports Sunday Assembly's attempts to spread its message here.

"I would paraphrase a quote that's not mine: I defend to the death their right to believe or not believe whatever they want, and I defend to the death my right to say they're wrong," he said. "Religious freedom means religious freedom for everyone."

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